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Other Ruins
in Yucatan

(This is taken from John D. Baldwin's Ancient America, originally published
in 1871.)

Izamal, Labna, Zayi, and some of the other ruins are
sufficiently important for special notice; but they present every where
the same characteristics, differing a little in the style or method of
ornamentation. At Labna there is among the ruins an ancient gateway,
beautiful in design and construction, a view of which is given in the
Frontispiece. The best account of some of the other ruins on this
peninsula can be found in the volumes of Mr. Stephens, entitled
“Incidents of Travel in Yucatan.” At Zayi there is a singular building,
which, as seen at a distance by Mr. Stephens, “had the appearance of a
New England factory.” But what seemed to be a “factory” is, in fact,
nothing more than a massive wall with oblong openings, which runs along
the middle of the roof, and rises thirty feet above it. The building was
below this wall, but the front part of it had fallen.

There is a remarkable ruin at Ake, at the south, which deserves
mention. Here, on the summit of a great mound, very level, and 225 feet
by 50 in extent, stand 36 shafts or columns, in three parallel rows. The
columns are about 15 feet high and 4 feet square. The ruins of Ake,
which cover a great space, are ruder and more massive than most of the
others. The island of Cozumel and the adjacent coast of Yucatan were
populous when the Spaniards first went there, but the great towns then
inhabited are now in ruins.

Water is scarce on this peninsula, and a sufficient supply is not
obtained without considerable difficulty. The ancient inhabitants
provided for this lack of water by constructing aguadas or artificial
ponds. These, or many of them, doubtless, are as old as the oldest of
the ruined cities. Intelligence, much skill in masonry, and much labor
were required to construct them. They were paved with several courses of
stone laid in cement, and in their bottoms wells or cavities were
constructed. More than forty such wells were found in the bottom of one
of these aguadas at Galal, which has been repaired and restored to use.
In some places long subterranean passages lead down to pools of water,
which are used in the dry season.

The wooden lintels, which are common in Yucatan, do not
appear in the other ruins, and there is a difference in the style of
ornamentation between those at Palenque or Copan, for instance, and
those at Uxmal, but every where the architecture is regulated by the
same idea, the differences indicating nothing more than different
periods and different phases of development in the history of the same
people.

Some of the great edifices in these old ruins, such as the “Palace”
at Palenque, and the “Casa del Gobernador” at Uxmal, remind us of the
“communal buildings” of the Pueblos, and yet there is a wide difference
between them. They are not alike either in character or purpose,
although such great buildings as the “Palace” may have been designed for
the occupation of several families. There is no indication that
“communal” residences were ever common in this part of the country. At
the time of the Conquest the houses of the people were ordinary family
dwellings, made of wood, and we may reasonably suppose this fashion of
building was handed down from the earlier ages. Herrera, who supposed,
mistakenly, that all the great stone edifices were temples, said, in his
account of Yucatan, “There were so many and such stately stone buildings
that it was amazing; and the greatest wonder was that, having no use of
any metal, they were able to raise such structures, which seem to have
been temples; for their houses were all of timber, and thatched.” But
they had the use of metals, and they had the art of making some of them
admirable for use in cutting stone and carving wood.

Among the buildings of later date are some of those on
the western coast, which were still inhabited three hundred and fifty
years ago. The city of Tuloom was inhabited then.

Within the walls are remains of finely constructed
buildings on elevated foundations, none of them, however, very large.
One of them had a wooden roof, and timber seems to have been
considerably used here. The walls still standing were made of hewn
stone. Remains of stone edifices exist all along this coast, but the
whole region is now covered by a dense growth of trees and other
vegetation. Tuloom was seen in 1518 by Grijalva, who sailed along the
coast. At that time the island of Cozumel, where noteworthy ruins are
found, was inhabited by many people.